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MyFitnessPal Community

How to maintain fitness when injured

elphie754

Last night I got pretty badly injured while at work. I ended up hurting my back and my side (major bruising and two cracked ribs). I have made great progress with fitness level the past few months and worried that I may lose that progress. Any ideas on how to maintain fitness level?

Replies

TavistockToad

you don't. you work on resting and healing, and then work on your fitness when you're better.

aokoye

Like TravistockToad said, you don't try to maintain your fitness when injured. You rest and your let your body heal. Doing otherwise would be a detriment.

tulips_and_tea

Oh no! Sorry to hear that. I dislocated three ribs and severely strained my chest muscles last year so I empathize. For me, the pain was so bad I could barely breathe or sleep, let alone eat, so fitness was NOT on my radar screen!

Take the time to heal. Yes, you may lose some level of fitness. I know I did, BUT, once I was healed I bounced right back and I've hit PRs in both lifts and walking distances ever since.

Listen to your body and take care of it. You'll be glad you did down the road.

heybales

And since I'd wager the majority of people on MFP are here to lose weight - so this is also not the time to be attempting a high, even if reasonable, rate of loss.

Reasonable in your state just changed, otherwise you cause the healing to drag out even further.

Take a smaller deficit during this initial recovery, perhaps even eating at maintenance.

Phoebe5164

You could go see a physiotherapist, they can guide you to some stretches that won’t cause more injuries. It’s important that you still move and stretch even while injured .

I wouldn’t mess with this by watching u tube videos 😊, you only get one body

lorrpb

heybales wrote: »

And since I'd wager the majority of people on MFP are here to lose weight - so this is also not the time to be attempting a high, even if reasonable, rate of loss.

Reasonable in your state just changed, otherwise you cause the healing to drag out even further.

Take a smaller deficit during this initial recovery, perhaps even eating at maintenance.

Track your food snd watch the portions and mindless snacking. Many people gain weight while injured because they don’t manage their eating. Any loss of fitness can be rebuild reasonably quickly once healthy again.

elphie754

Thanks everyone.

Likely not thinking so clear because of the painkillers they gave me. I’m sure once they leave my system I will come to my senses and realize everyone here is right.

TavistockToad

elphie754 wrote: »

Thanks everyone.

Likely not thinking so clear because of the painkillers they gave me. I’m sure once they leave my system I will come to my senses and realize everyone here is right.

There's some injuries you can work round, broken ribs is not one of them I wouldn't have thought.

heybales

First deep breath usually highlights that fact.

TavistockToad wrote: »

There's some injuries you can work round, broken ribs is not one of them I wouldn't have thought.

pinuplove

TavistockToad wrote: »

elphie754 wrote: »

Thanks everyone.

Likely not thinking so clear because of the painkillers they gave me. I’m sure once they leave my system I will come to my senses and realize everyone here is right.

There's some injuries you can work round, broken ribs is not one of them I wouldn't have thought.

Definitely not, based on what I saw when my husband broke one basically at the best fitness level he's ever been. He was sidelined for far longer than he liked.

born_of_fire74

Your body needs energy to repair itself so, if you were in a deficit, you should switch to maintenance. I was given this advice when I tore my hamstring and feel that it was very beneficial to my recovery.

cwolfman13

You don't. But as someone who's had a few nasty injuries over the last few years I can tell you that the good news is that it comes back fairly quickly once you're able to go again. You won't be able to start where you left off, but you likely won't be starting from square one either.

I was more or less sidelined from the weight room for August, Sept, and a couple weeks in Oct and could only do rehabby kind of stuff. I've been back in for a month now and things are progressing pretty quickly.

A few years ago I herniated a disk in my back and was doing physical therapy for 6 weeks...I couldn't ride or lift...I was pretty much out of commission for 3 months other than my PT and walking and then another 2 months of pretty light duty (easy riding/light weights). Once I was fully cleared, it didn't take long at all to get back.

Orphia

BZAH10 wrote: »

Oh no! Sorry to hear that. I dislocated three ribs and severely strained my chest muscles last year so I empathize. For me, the pain was so bad I could barely breathe or sleep, let alone eat, so fitness was NOT on my radar screen!

Take the time to heal. Yes, you may lose some level of fitness. I know I did, BUT, once I was healed I bounced right back and I've hit PRs in both lifts and walking distances ever since.

Listen to your body and take care of it. You'll be glad you did down the road.

Yes, I keep seeing runners do PBs after time off injured.

The rest works as downtime we all should schedule in anyway.